Method and System for Estimating Consumer Satisfaction

1. A computer-implemented method for estimating consumer satisfaction in a computer-implemented system, the method comprising: retrieving subjective data representing a subjective indication of at least one consumer's satisfaction with a first item; retrieving objective data related to the first item that has a first portion representing an objective indication of transaction data associated with transactions with a merchant for the first item and that has a second portion representing interactions by prospective customers with one or more Web pages from the merchant that include information related to the first item, the transactions with the merchant including sales of the first item by the merchant to multiple consumers and the first portion of the retrieved objective data being based at least in part on a quantity of the sales of the first item by the merchant; automatically determining an index for the first item as a function of both the subjective data and the objective data, the index estimating overall consumer satisfaction with the first item, the automatic determining being performed by one or more programmed computer systems of a merchant; providing information for display to one or more consumers other than the multiple consumers that includes the determined index for the first item, the providing of the information being performed by the one or more programmed computer systems of the merchant to facilitate a decision by the one or more consumers regarding whether to purchase the first item from the merchant; and in response to the providing of the information about the determined index, receiving instructions from a first of the one or more consumers to purchase the first item, and facilitating the purchase of the first item from the merchant for the first consumer.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: quantifying the subjective data; quantifying the objective data; and further wherein determining the index as a function of both the subjective data and the objective data includes comparing the quantified subjective data and the quantified objective data to place the subjective indication of the at least one consumer's satisfaction with the first item into context with the objective indication of transaction data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subjective data includes, for each of the at least one consumers, an evaluation of the consumer's satisfaction with the first item that is based on at least one of a rating of the first item by the consumer and a review of the first item by the consumer.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein possible values for the evaluations range from dissatisfied to satisfied.

5. The method of claim 3 , wherein each of the evaluations indicates one of a plurality of consumer satisfaction levels.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the quantifying of the subjective data includes totaling at least one of a number of consumer evaluations that indicate dissatisfaction with the first item and of a number of consumer evaluations that indicate satisfaction with the first item.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein one or more of the transactions for the first item each include at least one of a return, lease, termination of lease, rental, termination of rental, and refund for the first item.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the first portion of the retrieved objective data that is based at least in part on the quantity of the sales of the first item corresponds to at least one of a volume of the sales of the first item to the multiple consumers and a rate of the sales of the first item to the multiple consumers, and wherein the second portion of the retrieved objective data includes information about at least one of a quantity of views of the one or more Web pages by the prospective customers and of a quantity of click selections by the prospective customers of information relating to the first item on the one or more Web pages.

9. The method of claim 2 , further comprising weighting the quantified subjective data with a weight factor prior to determining the index as a function of both the subjective data and the objective data.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the weighting of the quantified subjective data is optimized based on curve-fitting, the curve-fitting including: querying a plurality of consumers as to whether they are satisfied with the first item; and determining a variance between expected responses to the querying and actual responses to the querying.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the weight factor includes at least one of a dissatisfaction, satisfaction, return, and refund weight factor.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of the information that includes the determined index for the first item includes providing a page for display that includes the determined index positioned next to the subjective indication of the at least one consumer's satisfaction with the first item.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of the information that includes the determined index for the first item includes providing a page for display that includes a second index estimating overall consumer satisfaction for a second item, the second index being determined as a function of subjective data and objective transaction data for the second item.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising ranking the first item relative to the second item based on the determined index for the first item and on the determined second index for the second item.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the page provided for display further includes information for the first and second items that is arranged in an order reflecting the ranking of the first and second items.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the providing of the information that includes the determined index for the first item includes providing a page for display that includes an index estimating overall consumer satisfaction for a category to which the first item belongs.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the page provided for display further includes an indication of whether consumers are more, less, or equally satisfied with other items in the category based on comparing the determined index for the first item to the index for the category.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining a change in the index for the first item over time, and wherein the providing of the information that includes the determined index for the first item includes providing a page for display that includes an indication of the determined change in the index.

19. A system for a merchant to facilitate an estimation of consumer satisfaction, the system comprising: a first repository of subjective satisfaction data representing at least one rating of an item by a consumer; a second repository of objective transaction data related to the item that has a first portion representing transactions with the merchant associated with the item and that has a second portion representing interactions by prospective customers with one or more pages from the merchant that include information related to the item, the transactions with the merchant including sales of the item by the merchant to multiple consumers and the first portion of the objective transaction data being based at least in part on a quantity of the sales of the item by the merchant; and a processor configured to: generate for the merchant an index of estimated overall customer satisfaction for the item as a function of the subjective satisfaction data and the objective transaction data, the generating of the index including weighting the subjective satisfaction data and the objective transaction data in distinct manners; and provide information from the merchant to consumers about the generated index to facilitate purchasing decisions by the consumers regarding purchasing the item from the merchant.

20. The system of claim 19 , wherein the index has a value spanning a range of degrees of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.

21. The system of claim 20 , wherein each of the at least one transactions is for one of a sale, return, refund, lease and rental of the item.

22. The system of claim 19 , wherein the processor is further configured to quantify at least one of the subjective satisfaction data and the objective transaction data.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein the second portion of the retrieved objective data includes information about at least one of a quantity of views of the one or more pages by the prospective customers and of a quantity of click selections by the prospective customers of information relating to the item on the one or more pages.